My immediate reactions to the slate of early games…

I already felt kind of stupid after championing Tom Brady this preseason and jumping off the bandwagon a month into the regular season. Now I feel really really stupid. My apologies to those of you who took my second advice on Brady. Hopefully you listened to me this preseason and then held on for a week beyond my bandwagon departure. Brandon LaFell has proven to be the receiver Brady needed opposite Julian Edelman, and Rob Gronkowski is obviously all the way back. Assuming health from the aforementioned starters, Brady is staying in your lineup.

 

Feel free to skip the rest of this paragraph because it’s just me complaining. I faced Rob Gronkowski in three leagues this week. In two of those leagues, I also faced Arian Foster. And in one of those leagues, I faced Emmanuel Sanders. I’m unhappy about this.

 

Not to harp on that New England game, but I should note that Jonas Gray carried the ball 17 times. This wasn’t junk time work, either. Well, there was some of that, but that’s because most of this game was junk time. We need to see it another week, as the Patriots are wont to mess with fantasy owners with their running back usage, but this could very easily turn into Gray taking on Stevan Ridley’s former role and Shane Vereen sticking with his usual gig.

 

Golden Tate is on fire, but with Calvin Johnson returning in Week 10 after Detroit’s bye, now’s probably the time to shop Tate. He’ll still have value, to be sure, but he’s going to be giving a lot of targets back to Megatron. As for his teammate Theo Riddick, whenever Reggie Bush misses time the rest of the way I’m advocating Riddick is a must-start in PPR leagues and a flex consideration in standard. His eight catches for 74 yards and a touchdown were second only to Tate, and it was the second time in his last two games played that he’s reached 74 yards and a score through the air.

 

The good news for those of you who spent your remaining FAAB budget on Tre Mason (two thumbs pointing at this guy), he led the Rams in carries Sunday. The bad news, Benny Cunningham and Zac Stacy had enough combined carries to out-touch Mason. It was a rough day all around for St. Louis, which struggled in a tough environment at Arrowhead Stadium. And as I noted in the Fantasy Football Pants Party, Mason is going to have a hard time getting work when his team is down by multiple scores, as he’s not a good enough pass blocker yet.

 

Cordarrelle Patterson’s fantasy line was decent with six catches for 86 yards. But even more important looking ahead were his 12 targets. If he’s getting that many looks going forward, Patterson once again finds himself in the weekly WR2 conversation.

 

The Seattle/Carolina game was brutal from a fantasy perspective, but one positive out of it is Kelvin Benjamin’s 94 yards. Yes, he dropped a touchdown pass that could’ve made it even better, but Benjamin fully cemented himself as matchup-proof.

 

It was interesting that Bernard Pierce was inactive on Sunday, and even more interesting that Lorenzo Taliaferro turned out to be the best fantasy back for the Ravens on Sunday. Yes, Justin Forsett got most of the workload, as expected. But Taliaferro punched in two red zone carries and had a couple long receptions as well. If this gig is Taliaferro’s for good—and Pierce has done nothing to keep that from happening—then he’s a weekly flex consideration as the goal-line guy for Baltimore.

 

My philosophy of starting whatever defense is facing Jacksonville continues to be a good one, as Miami returned a pair of interceptions for touchdowns. It wound up being a disappointing day for the Dolphins’ offensive guys—particularly Ryan Tannehill—but they didn’t need to do a whole lot in this game. I’m not terribly concerned about Lamar Miller, who still ran for 5.6 yards per carry on 14 attempts.

 

Lots of interesting numbers from the Jets/Bills game. The six combined turnovers from Geno Smith and Michael Vick were certainly hilarious/sad depending on your point of view. As for the Buffalo side, we got our answer as to who the workhorse is with Fred Jackson and CJ Spiller out. Anthony Dixon carried 22 times to Bryce Brown’s seven. Unfortunately, as expected, neither could do much with the work against that stout Jets front. Meanwhile, Kyle Orton completed just 10 passes in this game, but 40% of them went for touchdowns. That’s gotta be some kind of record. Sammy Watkins should’ve actually had two but he showboated his way to embarrass-ville. Still, 157 yards and a touchdown is nothing to sneeze at. Pretty sure Orton’s not going to have any more four-touchdown days, though.